Escaping to Ireland

Vinessa

I hated when he would just make a statement that either confused me or left me dazed with his magic. But today was a new level. He had pointed at himself and me and said that it sucks. I didn't even know what that meant since he had barely spoken to me since that night at Wanda's.

Wanda... He said he had been doing the "Jeremy Lesson" I knew Wanda and Jeremy's story, but I still didn't know what Jeremy had to do with the last week of him ignoring me. If he was picking me up at six o'clock, I would have under thirty minutes to get ready. It was going to be a fast turnaround, but I felt like I could do it. Plus, I was trying to prove to him that he and I wouldn't work with his family.

"I'll see you tonight, I assume," Ian, Liam's brother, said to me as he waited for the elevator to open. He said as if he knew inside information.

"I guess so," I said, smiling at him. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Give me your worse," Ian said, flashing me an almost identical smile to Liam's.

"What is your mother's favorite type of wine."

Ian took a minute, and I could tell he was working through something. "Since she is a recovering alcoholic which no one is supposed to know about... I would bring a box of chocolates or flowers. Actually, don't do the chocolate; she is kind of finicky with that type of stuff." The elevator door had opened, but he didn't step on; he stepped up to my desk. "Bring a unique flower if you can find one. Something she won't know. Also, wear your hair up, and wear high heels; I would paint your nails too, no chips."

"You do know I'm going to do the opposite of everything you just told me," I said to him when I should have been thanking him.

"No, you won't," he said to me.

"And why is that?" I asked, waiting for his joking response I thought would be coming back at me.

"Because you like my brother as much as he likes you." And just like his brother, he left me sitting there with no response to give.

Liam was punctual as always. I was waiting outside, standing on the front stoop. Wanda was mad, but I didn't care; I didn't want to have the prom scene where he stepped into the house, and he told me how gorgeous I was.

"Vinessa," Liam said, walking up to me in a suit, the jacket was unbuttoned, and he looked like a male model, and I knew that underneath his clothes were a six pack of abs that didn't help thinking about.

"Liam," I said back in the same tone.

"You look..." he paused.

"That bad?" I asked, wincing.

"I can't put words together for how good you look."

"This coming from the male model."

"That hurts," he said, opening the car door for me.

"How so?" I asked, constantly feeling like I asked him too many questions.

"Because you would never end up with a male model, you need to end up with somebody with substance." I swallowed, not knowing what to do when he talked about the forever. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I was hoping Maggie would have come along for the ride," I said jokingly.

"Yes, mother dearest would have loved that," he turned around on the road and started heading back to his house "on second thought, maybe we should go get her."

I laughed, a deep belly laugh, as he did this.

He turned around once again, heading back in the correct direction. "I guess we should probably behave tonight." He winked at me as he got back on the road.

"Yes, I suppose we should... I do have one other question for you."

"You are full of questions tonight," he said to me.

"What did you mean you were doing the Jeremy lesson? I forgot to ask Wanda whatever you could mean by that." In truth, I didn't forget; I just wanted to hear Liam's explanation.

"How about you ask me that question after the Gala tonight."

"I will wait with bated breath," I said. I thought I would be nervous, which I had been as I waited for Liam, but as soon as we got in the car and headed that way, it was as if everything was how it should be. It felt natural. It felt like we had done this a million times, but the excitement of it all was still there. And I wondered, and allowed myself to dream, that a life with Liam would always be exciting no matter how many times we did this; it made my stomach turn over and over.

It was more than butterflies that were brewing; it was love.